- Zeusaphone
Zeusaphone, also called a thoremin, is trademark for a high-frequency, solid state
Tesla coil , when its spark discharge is digitally modulated so as to produce musical tones. The high-frequency signal acts in effect as acarrier wave ; its frequency is significantly above human-audible sound frequencies, so that digital modulation is able to reproduce a recognizable pitch. The musical tone results directly from the passage of the spark through the air. The flexibility of the sound is limited by the fact that the solid-state coil produces square rather than sinusoidal waves; but simple chords are possible.This is a variant of the
plasma arc loudspeaker , designed for public spectacle and sheer volume rather than fidelity.The first known public demonstration of the device was on
June 9 ,2007 , at the [http://www.duckon.org/ Duckon] 2007Science Fiction convention. The performance was by [http://www.stevehv.4hv.org/ Steve Ward] , an Electrical Engineering student at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , who designed and built the Tesla coil he used. Since then there have been numerous other performances; e.g., " [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opf5jIukSBM Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies] ," performed onSeptember 8 ,2007 , at the 2007 "Cheesehead Teslathon," a.k.a. "Lightning on the Lawn," inBaraboo WI, by Ward and fellow designer [http://www.teslacoil.org/ Jeff Larson] on matching 41 kHz Tesla coils.The name "Zeusaphone" was conceived by [http://www.lyon.edu/html/FV/fac/gehm_b.htm Dr. Barry Gehm] , of
Lyon College , onJune 19 ,2007 , in a conversation with his friend [http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/profiles/William_Higgins.htm Bill Higgins] [See alsoHome on Lagrange (The L5 Song) ] . It is a play on the name of theSousaphone , giving homage instead toZeus , Greek god of lightning. The name was adopted by Mr. Ward onJune 21 ,2007 . [E-mail from Bill Higgins to the GT-PFRC discussion list, 6/21/2007.]Notes
External links
* [http://www.zeusaphone.com/index.html Web page for Zeusaphone.com] , manufacturers
* [http://hauntedfrog.com/gt/movies/2007/duckon/SingingTeslaShow.html Video of initial public demonstration at Duckon 2007]
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